I'm not shocked about how much it costs to keep a panda in a zoo, where they just survive. I remember the second or third year of the pandemic, Toronto Zoo was running out of bamboo for their pandas, and they were saying that would have to send them back to China. China's zoos are probably worse off than ours are in terms of standards of care and quality of life for the animals.
My stomach did lots of flips when I was reading about how wild animals are used in pawns for diplomacy. Just because "everyone does it", doesn't mean my/your country has to do it. It's something that's left over from colonialism, and progressive countries should not be taking part in this at all! How do we know that this type of diplomacy is not leading to human right abuses in what we're "trading" for? We will NEVER know if it's a place like China or India.
"We traded a panda for human rights abuses in a coal mine in China." is not a headline that anyone wants to read. All of this makes me really angry and upset.
Holy moly that’s a lot of expense and that’s just ONE species!
Staggering, isn't it...
Thanks Ed!! :)
I'm not shocked about how much it costs to keep a panda in a zoo, where they just survive. I remember the second or third year of the pandemic, Toronto Zoo was running out of bamboo for their pandas, and they were saying that would have to send them back to China. China's zoos are probably worse off than ours are in terms of standards of care and quality of life for the animals.
My stomach did lots of flips when I was reading about how wild animals are used in pawns for diplomacy. Just because "everyone does it", doesn't mean my/your country has to do it. It's something that's left over from colonialism, and progressive countries should not be taking part in this at all! How do we know that this type of diplomacy is not leading to human right abuses in what we're "trading" for? We will NEVER know if it's a place like China or India.
"We traded a panda for human rights abuses in a coal mine in China." is not a headline that anyone wants to read. All of this makes me really angry and upset.
As an aside, update on Wikie and Keiko (sp) with the Whale Sanctuary in Nova Scotia. (https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/for-wikie-keijo-whale-sanctuary-project-is-most-credible-innovative-solution/)